When You're Tired of Editing (And the Word “Like” Is Personally Offending You)

After deleting my fiftieth 'like,' I gave the manuscript a thumbs up.  It responded by hiding six more.

There comes a point in every manuscript where the story isn't the enemy anymore.  Mostly.

Instead the enemy becomes a new word.  In my case it was an abundance of the word "like."

You spot the word in every paragraph.  You remove one, only to find another hiding just two sentences later like it's playing some twisted game of literary whack-a-mole.  Before long you're staring at your document thinking, If I see this word one more time I'm gonna walk slowly into the sea.

Editing is an exhausting job because it is asking your brain to do something it doesn't want to do.  The creative side of you wants to tell a story.  The editor wants to interrogate every single comma as though it's committed some sort of tax fraud.

Eventually that all too familiar fatigue sets in.  Bonus points if it's accompanied by a dose of imposter syndrome.

So what is one supposed to do?

We can step away.

There are times the best edit is no edit at all.

Close that document, go make some tea or coffee, start a goose cult.

Stop summoning the dark void from the other dimension!  Don't lick it!  You're not my cat!

Your subconscious will still be plugging away while you're away.

Try changing the mission.

Instead of editing everything at once pick just one target.  For me it was hunting the word "like."  Hunt down one word today and something else tomorrow.  By the third day you're looking for repeated sentence structures.

Breaking edits into tiny little quests makes them feel less overwhelming and keeps your brain from trying to juggle twenty different things at once.

Read it out loud.

You might hate me for this one but I've done some research on it.  Nothing will reveal awkward prose than your own voice.  By talking it out you'll discover sentences that run on for half a page.  You'll find yourself tripping over repeated words.  You'll hear dialogue that sound suspiciously like two robots discussing tax policy.  If you can't comfortably read it aloud, then your readers probably won't glide through it either.

Accept some words belong there.

Not every instance is guilty or need removal.  Sometimes a comparison or dialogue is needed.  The goal isn't to eliminate a certain word from existence but to make every word earn its place.

Remember you're not failing.

Feeling tired or not being happy with your work doesn't mean that you're a bad writer.  It usually means you've been paying attention.

Professional writers have to go through dozens of passes.  Some may spend entire editing sessions fixing one tiny issue across hundreds of pages.

That's not failure.

It's craftsmanship and the stubborn refusal to give up.

Celebrate the victories.

Did you remove ten unnecessary words?

Great!

Did you rewrite one clunky paragraph until it stood up straight?

Go you!

Did you simply open the manuscript after wanting to avoid it all week?

That counts too.

Progress shouldn't be measured only in finished chapters or works completed.

Sometimes it's measured in one less filler word.

And if all else fails, remember this:  somewhere in your manuscript, another sneaky "like" is hiding behind a perfectly innocent sentence.  It's waiting to leap out the moment you believe you've found them all.

That little rascal.